F for Freedom
by N'yrthghar
Summary: Judy is walking home from work when she's stopped by members of the Watch. She worries about what they'll do, until a mysterious masked mammal comes to her aid. 'V for Vendetta' inspired one-shot with the possibility of being turned to a full story.


Judy had been taught to try and expect the unexpected. And of course, when unexpected occurred, to run from the situation as fast as possible. But, since no one had ever told her what to do when she was unable to run, she learned to fight. Granted, it was mostly from her siblings, and rarely did she ever spar with a mammal more than twice her size. So this put her at an unexpected disadvantage when several mammals of the Watch – a deer, a dhole, and a beaver – had caught her out after curfew as she returned home from work. She had been kept late, and as a result had missed the trains – her only chance to get home on time. Most nights, she could safely reach her drab apartment without being caught. But it seemed that luck was not on her side tonight.

Or, perhaps it was. As, just when Judy felt that she would need to fight back against the Watch (who were becoming more and more aggressive with each passing moment), a dark figure had approached from a nearby alleyway. The first Watchmammal, the deer, had turned to face the newcomer with clear frustration. "Oi, you better get lost, before we cuff you an' send you to the jails as well."

When the newcomer, who stood somewhere around four feet tall, made no motions to leave, the deer began to march towards him, muttering obscenities as he reached for his cuffs. He never reached them, however, as the black-clad newcomer had lashed out with something, making the deer fall to his knees and clutch a new wound in his leg's side. Judy watched as the deer hissed and began to stand, before being struck in the side of the neck with a paw, followed by several difficult-to-see punches, before being shoved into the nearby brick wall with a solid crack.

The dhole hissed and began to approach the larger mammal, drawing his weapon. Judy didn't see what happened to him as, seeing her chance to slip free, she turned and kicked the side of the beaver's knee. He screamed as his leg bent oddly, not quite enough to break but enough to hurt, letting the rabbit step back and give him another kick between the legs, before roundhouse kicking the side of his head and sending the mammal to the ground.

When she turned back around, the dhole was on the ground, clutching his stomach as the new figure stepped over him and towards Judy. Thinking of nothing else to do, she reached inside her satchel for the bottle of fox repellant her parents had insisted she take with her to the city – even if this mammal wasn't a fox, it would hurt.

He held out a single gloved paw to Judy, palm facing her, before speaking in a surprisingly kind tone. "I don't intend to harm you."

Judy studied the mammal closely; he was dressed in all black, from the nearly knee-length boots and black pants, to his tight-fitting thigh-length black coat. His waist was marked with a similarly black belt, which itself was adorned with two sets of three throwing knives each – one of which, Judy could see, glistened with a fresh splash of crimson. His paws were, of course, covered in black gloves, and a simple black hat, and he wore a matching cape that flowed lazily in the late night's breeze. And, the most unique part of his ensemble, a white mask shaped similar to a fox's face, the nose being the only noticeable black part, aside from the slight rosy coloration to the cheeks, and the mesh covering the mammal's eyes. A similar mesh hung low and loosely around the lower jaw before disappearing under the coat.

The rabbit didn't take her eyes off of him, paw ready to pull out the repellant in an instant as she asked a simple question: "Who are you?"

The fox let out a low rumble of a chuckle, before responding. "Who? Who is but the form following the function of a what and what I am is a mammal in a mask."

"I can see that," Judy snapped.

"Well of course you can," the masked fox stated simply. "I wasn't questioning your powers of observation, only musing on the paradox of asking a masked mammal who he is."

"Right," Judy muttered, looking around at the limp forms around them. She jumped slightly when the mammal (whom she could quickly identify as a fox at this point) spoke again and without warning.

"Ah, but I can, in an effort to make you more comfortable with my presence, attempt to give you a glimpse at the nature of this persona." He cleared his throat and took a breath, stepping away from Judy as he flung his arms wide in a dramatic fashion.

"Forgive me, madam, for I fear my ferocious fending off of your fiendish offenders may have offered a far cry of my verifiable nature. For you see, I am no fearsome figure of the far-flung alleys and festering underground, brought forth by your unfortunately timed offense to the likes of these factotum fools led around by their fagin. But also do not mistake me for a fanfaron engaing in fandangle who fantasticates the farouche fardel of his work; for I am no mammal of falsiloquence engaging in famicide for fatuous reasons. And I hope not to make you out to be a feckless female, for indeed you seem like a flammule, eagerly awaiting fuel for your fire within, forby you seem quite fornent to their feculent rules of fiddlededee. I represent the families from before the fear-mongering tyrants rose to power and began to forswink the public from within their infrangible fortalice – I and I alone, through my furacious nature, embody the furibund nature of the long-since-lost, forgotten and fogram, falsidical in nature and belief, farrago of the past. This fatiloquent mammal, no fabulist, fights for the freedom and for the future of the many victims of the facinorous felons feigning the nation's fantod, faking the need for their vile ferity of a fascist government. Alas, let me cease this fiddle-faddle and call forth this speech's end with my finalism, and let me simply add that it is my very good honour to meet you and you may call me... F."

The fox gave a bow, removing his hat and tucking one arm to his stomach as the matching leg tipped to its side, his other arm held behind his back and the matching leg bending to lower himself before her. Judy was, to a great degree, stunned by the calm nature of the fox as he managed to balance such alliteration. She cocked her head to the side in curiousity as she studied him, the mammal straightening up and returning the hat to the top of his head as he drew the cape back over his form. "Are you, like, a crazy person?" She finally asked.

Despite the mask, Judy could almost see the smug grin on the mammal before her. "I'm quite sure they will say so."

 **** **This was a fun little experiment that I have had stuck in my head ever since I re-watched the movie 'V for Vendetta'. If there's enough interest in this, I'll think about making it into a full story - but I hoped you enjoyed this little one-shot nonetheless.**


End file.
